104 A SPRING TOUE IX PORTUGAL. 



banks of the transparent Lis, and eaten the magnificent 

 oranges we had purchased in the market, we should have 

 been at a loss how to fill up the remainder of our stay but 

 for the fortunate circumstance that, on emerging on the 

 praya, we discovered that a cattle fair was just about to be 

 held there ; and now we had ample employment in watch- 

 ing the arrival of the peasants in holiday costume with 

 their yokes of oxen for sale, which rapidly poured into the 

 wide expanse of the prafa from all sides. The oxen were 

 universally of diminutive size, and generally mouse-coloured 

 with dark muzzles. They always came in pairs, wearing 

 the yoke which united them in their daily labour, and their 

 drivers were sometimes young boys and sometimes old men, 

 or in other cases young girls, and occasionally old women ; 

 but all were evidently bent on merry-making, and by their 

 smiling looks and gay demeanour, as well as by their holiday 

 clothes, showed unmistakably that they shared in the feel- 

 ing so universally entertained by our good country folk in 

 merry England, regarding the fun and general jollity of a 

 fair. Then the buyers and sellers and lookers-on began 

 to arrive, some on sleek mules, some on raw-boned horses, 

 many on foot, but by far the majority on donkeys, which 

 shuffled into the pra9a in swarms, and of v/hich we met a 

 continued stream still jogging on towards the town for a 

 good league or more as we journeyed away from Leiria. 

 This was all interesting enough, and a fair is the very 

 rendezvous of costume such as the stranger desires to see ; 

 but besides this, we were so fortunate as to witness more 

 than one Portuguese deal or barter, when the assurance of 

 the superlative excellence of his goods on the part of the 

 vendor, the depreciation of the same on the part of the 

 buyer, the excitement, the expressive action, the incredu- 

 lity, the indignation, and finally the bid from the buyer, 

 the refusal from the seller, and their subsequent agree- 

 ment, were worthy of such transactions in the East, the 



